


Your Extra Time

by jasbo



Category: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
Genre: F/M, Young Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-13
Updated: 2016-06-13
Packaged: 2018-07-13 20:25:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7135796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jasbo/pseuds/jasbo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Happiest of birthdays to our dear B!</p>
<p>The sequel to <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/6941638/chapters/15830362">A Very Desirable Partner</a></p>
            </blockquote>





	Your Extra Time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MercurialBianca_TheHonorableMrsMcCarthy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MercurialBianca_TheHonorableMrsMcCarthy/gifts).



Kip grunted as he pulled himself toward the upper porch of Wardlow, hoping the sound didn’t carry to the lower floor. The elaborate railing gave plenty of purchase for climbing, but his medical studies hadn’t left him as fit as he had once been when he worked with his hands.

_Some cavalier_ , he thought ruefully. Then his mind ranged to the prize he sought. _Jane_. He smiled as he thought of her glowing eyes framed by the curls of a Regency coiffure, her gloved hand meeting his as they executed the steps of a waltz. Strength surged through his arms and he hoisted himself over the ornate ironwork railing, landing as softly as he could, his heart pounding rapidly.

_Second window on the left_ her note had said. Absurdly, he hesitated, suddenly wondering if she had meant “left” from the perspective of someone standing in front of the house, even though he knew full well from her communication that her bedroom faced the back. Sliding leftward on quiet (oh, he hoped they were quiet) feet, he peered into the window he thought was Jane’s, his pulse a rapid drumbeat, his breath short.

The crack of the window unsticking from the frame as unseen hands hoisted it aloft nearly made Kip’s heart burst from panic.

“ _Kip?_ ”

Kip laid a hand on his heaving chest. “Jane,” he whispered with relief.

“Enough of that,” Jane said breathlessly, grasping his hand and pulling him through the open window. “Get in here and _shhh._ Miss Phryne’s parlor is right below us and she’s chosen tonight of all nights to sit up and read.”

Gathering his wits about him, Kip realized that the window he had traversed was more accurately Alice’s looking glass: he had stood on one side, cold, panicked and alone. On the other side was warmth and a fragrant and soft armful of young woman. 

“Jane,” he breathed, running his hand up and down her back, which was covered in a silky robe. Her eyes were large and luminous in the half-light from the alley. Her long hair was gathered in a long plait that rested on her shoulder.

Kip had thought about what this moment would be like. Or rather, he had daydreamed about it. In his imagination, he was all energy and purpose, filled with poised confidence.

The reality, he realized, was somewhat less heroic.

“Kip? Are you okay?” Jane asked, an uncertain look flickering across her face. “Are you…having second thoughts?”

“No!” he exclaimed, wincing as she furiously shushed him, eyes darting meaningfully to the door. “No,” he whispered. “Not at all. I just…this is the first…” embarrassed, he trailed off.

“Well it’s not as if _I’ve_ had all that much practice,” Jane said with more asperity than he might have expected from the heroine of his daydreams.

It was perfectly _Jane_ , however, he thought with a grin.

 

* * *

 

_Why is he just standing there grinning at me as if I was a circus performer?_ Jane was beginning to wonder if this tryst was a mistake. But then Kip’s expression softened. She was still holding his hand from pulling him through the window and his thumb ghosted across her palm, making her shiver even more than the smooth sweep of his other hand against her back. The silk kimono had been one of Miss Phryne’s birthday gifts to her at her party a few weeks before.

“A woman needs something soft for the boudoir,” Miss Phryne had said with a saucy wink. Jane had donned the silky garment with a sly smile just a half hour before, thinking fondly of Kip’s touch in the garden at her birthday party. But now…he seemed so hesitant, goofy grin notwithstanding. Was this going to go as she had planned?

 

* * *

 

This was not going as Kip had planned. Jane seemed stiff and almost forbidding. She was studying his face like an archeological specimen she wasn’t sure was worth the effort to analyze. Frantically, he cast his mind back to the shadow-dappled garden of a few weeks before where they had come together with so much electricity and excitement. The gloves, the presence of the other party guests just a scant few yards away, the thrill of the illicitness of it.

A sudden assurance washed over him as he realized the path he should take. Leaning forward, he released his hand from Jane’s and slid it around her waist, pulling her to him with both hands flat against her back. “So we might be discovered if we make too much noise?”

 

* * *

 

The whispering flutter of his breath against her ear, combined with the hard, warm feel of his body pressing against hers made a thrill run through Jane. “Yes,” she breathed. “Miss Phryne is right downstairs.”

“Well then, Miss Jane Ross,” a pause while he trailed kisses down the column of her neck, following up with a nip of his teeth at the angle of her shoulder that made her shiver. “You are going to have to be very, very quiet while I try very, very hard to make you scream my name.”

Jane felt her eyes widen as she leaned back to look at Kip. His own eyes were laughing and so serious at the same time.

“Kip, you sound very, very…naughty.”

“And…does it please my lady?”

“Oh, very much.”

 

* * *

 

Phryne sipped the last of the whiskey in her glass as she turned a page. A quiet  _thump_ from upstairs was followed by what might be a giggle. A sly smile flickered across her lips as she stood and crossed the room to refill her glass, silk trousers whispering around her legs. Placing the decanter down, she heard more soft noises that sounded like attempts at stealthy passion. Glancing at the bookshelves, she noticed a volume was tugged out of place, sitting in an attitude of prominence among its fellows. An odd, almost housewifely impulse in her led her to walk over to the shelf and she smiled a real smile as she extended a finger to push the spine of _Erotica of the Far East_ back into the row.


End file.
